Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Bakuten Shoot Beyblade

Notes: This is a birthday present for Lady-Nikki who turns a year older on the 23rd! Happy early birthday dearheart n.n Thank you to Shin Rigel and Meilin and Nedunque for pointing out my errors!

xxx

It had taken him long, grueling nights filled with the usual love-stricken anxiety to get to this point. Kai Hiwatari had fallen in love with him at first sight and after a year of guideless wandering in the foreign field of deeper emotions, a girl named Hiromi Tachibana took the reins of his love life and put the pieces together. He now knew that Rei Kon loved him as well.

This was the climax of his life (or at least it was in his post-pubescent, hormonal mind). It was do-or-die. Now-or-never. This could make or break everything he knew and cherished in his life.

As Rei sat on a large rock near the koi pond, looking beautiful even though he was simply staring at the swimming fish, Kai could feel his courage scurrying to hide behind his usual façade. However, in his mind came Hiromi's intensive 10-minute lecture that he had been subjected to only minutes ago, and a burst of masculine determination swept him towards Rei.

"Hey," he said, forcing himself to break from his habitual grumpiness and sound loving and caring.

Rei looked up, eyes glazed for a second before he smiled brightly as usual. "Yes?"

Clearing his throat, Kai sat down, remembering that Hiromi had firmly stated that he should not 'appear superior.' "I was just going to ask you something."

Rei continued to smile, curiosity sparkling in his eyes.

"Well," Kai cleared his throat yet again. He stopped when he was on the verge of actually choking on his saliva. Closing his eyes, he stated matter-of-factly (Hiromi had told him to 'be as direct as possible'); "Would you go on a date with me?"

Rei's smile dropped.

Kai became uncharacteristically, overwhelmingly, frustratingly nervous.

At this point, just when Kai was about to jump into the pond and drown himself out of sheer teen angst, Rei shouted, "HIROMI!"

She appeared before the last syllable left his mouth. She wedged in between them, a bright and cheery smile on her face. "What is it, Rei? Anything wrong I can help you with?"

Rei whispered something into her ear, occasionally glancing over at Kai to make sure he couldn't be heard. Once he finished, Hiromi slapped her forehead, letting out an 'oh!' before grabbing a confused and dejected Kai's wrist and pulling him towards the dojo. The shoji door slammed behind them.

"Kai, Rei's Chinese!" she exclaimed, waving her arms as if baffled by some ethereal revelation.

Kai, raising his eyebrow at the obvious statement, didn't say anything.

Ignoring Kai's silent question, Hiromi rushed over to the phone and furiously punched at the buttons. A few seconds later, she was asking, in a strangely dreamy tone, for 'them' to fly up to Japan for a 'special favor that cannot be discussed at this point in time' (at that statement, she looked blatantly at Kai).

For the next few days, Kai never figured out whom Hiromi had called and why Rei's ethnicity was of so much importance.

Kai decided, when Hiromi ended her phone call and looked devilishly at him, that he hated dating.

xxx

It was Saturday morning when they arrived. Baifuzu, Rei's glorious old team. How Kai hated them.

As soon as they walked through the shoji door, Mao and Hiromi ran off giggling while the rest of the BBA and Baifuzu talked and talked and talked for ages. Kai was getting sick of them already.

Suddenly, the girls returned and ushered Rei towards the kitchen. Nobody but Kai seemed to notice.

After about an hour of absolute suffering (this was Kai's opinion, of course, everyone else was too busy laughing and not being in an I-miss-Rei mood), the girls announced, along with the crisp, seductive smell of food, that dinner was ready. Some ran, some walked, and some remained leaning against the wall.

Kai wasn't hungry anyway.

He continued sulking until the gurgling in his stomach forced him to sit with them at the dining table. He was a whole three seats away from Rei and unfortunately right next to two giggling females and a small boy who ought to be female. The crazy grandfather sat in front of him babbling in that strange lingo he could never quite understand.

He began filling his plate with rice, chunks of fish, lettuce leaves, and chili paste. He made himself several lettuce-rice-chili paste sandwiches and saved the fish for last. Of course, having Takao and Gary there at the same table meant little food (individually, the two weren't much to worry about, but together they were an eating machine force to be feared) for the rest of them.

Clanging a fork against her plastic cup, Hiromi stood up from the floor and stated with excitement, "I have an announcement to make!" The chatter dissolved into silence as everyone turned their attention to the brown-headed girl. Once seeing all eyes on her, she continued, "I would like to propose, dear Baifuzu, a match between your 'brother' Rei Kon and my friend Kai Hiwatari."

Rei was beaming.

"As matchmaker, I have carefully looked into their specific interests and traits and conclude that they can have a happy and prosperous life together!"

The Baifuzu members shared a long, knowing look. They nodded simultaneously. Kai was a bit frightened.

Rai stood up, puffing his bare chest out in a show of masculinity. "I accept this proposal. Tomorrow at noon we shall commence the astrological matching. I assume you have these texts with you?"

"Of course." Hiromi smirked at Kai.

Kai really, really, really hated dating.

xxx

Nighttime came and went with them sleeping in a separate room. To Kai's disappointment, Rei slept with them for reasons he was not told. Because of that, he had very little sleep and was even more grumpy than usual in the morning. It wasn't really his fault that they seemed more annoying than usual.

When it struck twelve, Takao and Max happily shouted it down the halls, and Hiromi was already ready with her massive amounts of books, all of them concerning different types of astrology.

Hiromi and the Baifuzu were all squabbling over the books, exclaiming and pointing out certain passages and sometimes even arguing. It was a long, annoying, and unnecessarily complicated process in which Kai wanted to shoot them all.

It was three o'clock, they were all hungry but more importantly finished. Their results were currently secret from both Kai and Rei, claiming that it was a surprise and would needed to be revealed after a lovely dinner.

Tonight was a luxurious, traditional Japanese-and-Chinese meal, enough for everyone -even Tyson and Gary- to eat their fill with leftovers. Everyone's crystal cups were filled with sparkling water for the celebration. Hiromi once again stood up, her cup in her hand.

"As you all know," she began as if starting some valedictorian speech, "we are here to announce whether our Kai Hiwatari and Rei Kon are compatible according to the heavenly stars." At this, Rei blushed in what appeared to be excitement. "Well, after heavy consideration and research-" Kai muttered bitterly that it took them three fucking hours. "-the heavenly deities have announced that these two are a match!"

The Baifuzu and BBA (minus Kai and Rei) and Takao's grandfather all cheered loudly, animatedly congratulating a pink-cheeked Rei and an ecstatic-but-not-admitting-it Kai.

Kai's mood deflated when he realized that he could not yet sleep in the same room as Rei until they were married.

The word echoed in Kai's mind.

All Kai wanted to do was have a nice, romantic dinner with Rei . . . Alone!

xxx

Before he was ready, someone was shaking him awake and whispering frantically in his ear to 'get up right now or I'll chop your parts off!' It was not so much the threat that caused him to crawl out of bed and promptly get dressed, but his own will (or at least that was what he asserted to himself). Hiromi kept an eye on him, making sure he was swift with his morning business. She then asked for his wallet.

Kai glared in suspicion. He had heard horror stories about girls and money.

"Oh, get over it, Kai!" she rolled her eyes, "I – I mean, we – need to buy gifts for Rei's family!"

Kai glared more ferociously.

She sighed, exasperated and irritated. "It's tradition! Now hand it over! NOW!"

Kai did as he was told, but only because he wanted to do anything he could to please Rei and his strange, strange cultural traditions.

They walked to town, traveling from store to store. Kai merely stood a foot away from Hiromi as she examined clothing, souvenirs, and other merchandise. She made often 'hmm' sounds that made Kai feel insecure about the originality of his own 'hn' sound. She whipped out his credit card almost as often, and Kai was stuck carrying the packages.

He didn't know exactly what she bought, and he didn't exactly care. He just wanted this damn procedure to be over.

"What are those for?" Kai asked, pointing at the dozen pink roses that Hiromi held herself.

She blushed, averting her eyes to the sky. "It's an appreciation gift."

Kai didn't press any further.

Apparently, these gifts were called "betrothal gifts." He was slightly confused as he was quite sure that his and Rei's relationship had not been pre-arranged by either of their guardians, but he went along with it. He hoped that these gifts were the last step and that they would hurry up and return to their dinky village.

Unfortunately, he discovered that they were only at the halfway point.

"It's now time for the wedding gifts stage!" Mao announced at the dinner table, holding a bouquet of pink roses to her chest and giggling.

Abandoning all dignity, Kai passed out at that very moment.

xxx

When he came to consciousness about fifteen minutes later, his head was nestled snuggly in the lap of – Takao!

Immediately, he stood up, ignoring the buzzing feeling that clouded his mind. Everyone was crowding around him, looking at him with confusion and concern (though, that girly little brat with green hair looked as if he were suppressing his laughter).

"Kai, what happened?" Hiromi pressed her hand to his forehead.

"W-w-" Kai cleared his throat. He cleared it again and again when he met Rei's gaze. "You said 'wedding' gifts."

"Well of course," Mao said with a tone that suggested she thought Kai as an idiot, "this is the traditional Chinese way to court someone. You did have marriage in mind, didn't you?" Her pupils narrowed as she glared venomously at him.

"I just wanted to go on a date with him! I wanted to take him to an expensive restaurant and buy him flowers and chocolates and maybe give him a kiss on the cheek! I can't . . . I thought China moved on to modern, westernized dating!"

The Baifuzu gasped, and Rei looked strangely hurt.

Kai sighed, kneeling in front of Rei and taking his hand. He looked straight into Rei's eyes. "Rei. I care about you a lot. Isn't that enough?"

Rei did not jump into his arms as he expected. His expression remained dead-panned as if he was not in the least bit impressed.

He continued, hoping he could at least woo Rei with his words. "I want to take this slowly. And, I know I've probably disappointed you with this whole . . . tradition thing, but I'm not Chinese. And this isn't your village. So . . ."

Rei was still not smiling, and Kai began to panic.

Losing his patience and not really thinking rationally, Kai pushed Rei to the floor and kissed him like it was all he knew. To his joy, Rei put in just as much passion, and he was one hell of a delicious and skilled kisser.

Mao screamed, "What about the lotus seeds and bridal cakes!"

xxx